Subject

Soldier in the 12th (County of London) Battalion (The Rangers) killed in Ypres.

Andrew Behan has researched Cook: Acting Company Quartermaster Serjeant Claud Clinton Cook was born at 6 Vale Close, Windsor Road, Upton-cum-Chalvey, Slough, Buckinghamshire, the eldest of the five children of John William Cook and Amy Gertrude Cook née Baker and his birth was registered in the third quarter of 1891. His father was an Accounts Office Clerk employed by the Metropolitan Railway. The 1901 census show the family living at 30 Clairville Gardens, Hanwell and the 1911 census states that he was living with his parents, his four siblings and his maternal grandfather at 20 Manor Road, West Ealing. Both he and a younger brother were employed as Railway Clerks - he was working for the Great Central Railway and his younger brother, John Cyril Cook, for the Great Western Railway.

In September 1914 he enlisted in the 2nd/12th (County of London) Battalion, The London Regiment (The Rangers) and his service number was 2987. In 1917 service numbers were changed and his became 470723. He entered France on 4 February 1917 and was killed in action, aged 26 years, on 29 September 1917 and was buried in Plot I, Row C, Grave 52 of the Duhallow Advanced Dressing Station Cemetery, Ypres, West Flanders, Belgium. His father was granted administration of his estate on 20 November 1917 and his effects totalled £143-7s-8d. On 15 January 1918 his father was sent his army effects totalling £7-17s-11d followed by a further payment of £2-18s-0d on 14 May 1918. On 1 December 1919 his father received his £16-10s-0d war gratuity. He was posthumously awarded the British War Medal 1914-1918 and the Victory Medal. He is also commemorated among the 1,047 names listed on the Ealing War Memorial Gates, Pitzhanger Manor, Walpole Park, Mattock Lane, London, W5 5EQ.